President Irfaan Ali yesterday announced that his government is preparing to launch a single window approval system to eliminate the lengthy waiting period for the approval of building plans.
Speaking at the swearing in ceremony for Mayors and Deputy Mayors at State House, Ali said there have been a lot of changes in the construction sector.
“We understand the changes that are taking place, the capital city Georgetown is not the same capital city. The level of commerce, sophistication of investment, have changed tremendously; the type of office buildings have changed,” Ali observed.
However, he lamented that there have been numerous complaints about the lengthy process involved in getting a building plan approved.
“In some instances, it [the permit] stays at some town councils or city council for some time, two years, and three years. So, what we have to do now is to work collectively on creating a single window approval system in keeping with international best practices,” Ali declared.
On this note, he said that there must be changes and his government will be holding talks with stakeholders to create a system that will eliminate the lengthy wait.
“…The laws have really remained constant, the regulations have remained constant. The building codes have remained constant. And these are some of the things that Central Government will be working on,” he added.
In the preceding two years, Guyana was ranked at 134 in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, which highlighted that it could take up to 208 days to get a construction permit, 82 days to get electricity, and 46 to register a property.
Upon taking office, Chief Investment Officer Peter Ramsaroop of Guyana’s Office for Foreign and Local Investment (G-Invest) had said that it was his agency’s mission to cut bureaucratic red tape and encourage ease of business.
“We are going to be proactive… there are many opportunities here and G-Invest becomes that first focal point- a place that investors come and will be guided and steered on all that is needed for their projects to become reality,” Ramsaroop said.
Recently a number of investors have announced plans to construct multimillion dollar projects such as hotels in Region four. This construction boom will test the effectiveness of the agencies required to provide approval for construction.
